Wednesday, 24 September 2014

After crossing the Colombian border we went to see a church
we had been told about that is built in between the rocks in a narrow gorge -
Las Lajas Sanctuary. It was pretty impressive and while we were walking around
we discovered that Colombians are very much like Brazilians and Indians – they
love to take photos! I think we had photos taken with almost every single
person there and children were placed on our motorbikes as well. Everyone were
really friendly though and it gave us a good first impression of Colombians.
Because it was late in the day we decided to spend our first night in Colombia
in the border town of Ipiales. It was a fairly dull city and quite cold and
miserable as we were still up in the mountains. We found a cheap place to stay
with parking for the bikes and then had the meal of kings: chips for dinner as
we couldn’t find metholated spirits anywhere for cooking with.

The next day we rode to Popayan on a spectacular bit of road
that took us from the cold and wet mountains through dry and hot desert scape
for thereafter ending up in Popayan which was still very hot. We arrived in
Popayan in rush hour traffic and the small colonial streets were clogged with
cars. This wasn’t helped by the fact that Colombian streets have no names, only
numbers and there is no order in the numbers so it’s really hard to find the
address you’re looking for. In Popayan there was an abundance of machinegun
toting military in the streets but we found out that was because the president
was in town. We met a local policeman there who had a son who collected foreign
coins. We had a few coins from different countries so we contributed to his
collection and he brought us breakfast the next morning. He made us slightly
paranoid as he constantly jumped up and looked out the window to check on his
bike. He told us to be very careful in Colombia when it came to our bikes,
especially in the bigger cities like Cali and Medellin. We stayed in Popayan
two nights and left for Cali. On the way there we passed many military check
points but they mostly waved us through except once when they stopped us and
wanted to see our papers for the bikes, then proceeded to look inside my helmet
lifting up the inner liner and cushions to look for what I assume to be drugs.
Of course they didn't find anything and we were on our way. A funny observation
was that at most of these checkpoints the soldiers are giving thumbs-up to every
vehicle who passes. Apparently it means that it's all safe to pass.

Cali is a big city with just as indecipherable street numbering. After a couple
of wrong turns and having a group of black guys do an impromptu dance
performance for us at a traffic light we managed to find Hostel Casa Blanca
which used to be a biker’s hostel but it has just been sold so is now in a new
location and no longer has secure parking. We could park our bikes outside
though which we usually don’t do because of safety, but we couldn’t be bothered
to look for somewhere else so we did it. Here we met a French couple on a BMW
and an American on a shitty little Chinese bike. In Cali we tried
unsuccessfully to find a roadmap of Colombia but we did have success finding
SOAT, the required motorcycle insurance. Apparently if you don’t have it and
get stopped by the police they can confiscate your bike. We quickly discovered
that Colombia is expensive. Long gone are the low prices of Bolivia and Peru.
We have landed in a western world prices country. That really sucks for us as
our bank account is starting to get dangerously low. So we have to seriously
watch our money here where accommodation and food is that much more expensive.
Thankfully beer is still pretty cheap - phew!

Another observation we have made in Colombia: the Spanish they speak here is
like a different language altogether. By now I consider my Spanish to be fairly
good (although still far, far from fluent!) and in previous countries I haven't
had many problems making myself understood and having conversations with the
locals, but here... I feel like I'm back to square one. They speak super fast
and the words come out all muffled up, what's more is, they don't understand a
word of what I am saying either...it's really quite bizarre! Apart from the
language difficulties it must be said that the reputation the Colombians have
as friendly and warm is absolutely true. Many will go out of their way to help
us if we need anything or are looking for something.

We stayed in Cali two nights, big cities just don't agree with us, and I think
Mark feared being forced along to a salsateca (salsa club) so we left town to
ride to the Zona Cafetera - coffee country. As neither Mark nor I are coffee
drinkers we stuck to admiring the coffee plantations that spread out on either
side of the road while riding towards Salento, a small town in the Valle de
Cocora, a green valley with tall palm trees and coffee plantations all around.
Here we camped at a hostel just outside town and went for a bit of a dirt ride
the following day, which was nice until my battery decided to die and my bike
wouldn't start anymore. We bump started it and kept on riding but as the track
narrowed in and became increasingly steeper and more difficult and my bike kept
stalling it just made for a really difficult ride and so we turned around to
ride back to our camp. On the way there my bike stalled numerous times for
unknown reasons and we had to push it up hills to bump start it again and again
and in the high humidity it was hard work.

In Salento we were joined by Rick and Rahul, both Americans, Rick living and
working for a motorcycle tour company in Cali and Rahul was the guy with the
shitty Chinese bike (which actually later turned out to be shitty American
bike) we'd met in Cali. He decided he wanted to ride with us for a bit and so
after a few days in Salento we set off for Pereira, a nearby larger city to
look for a new battery for my bike. Pereira was a particularly rough-looking
city and the area where the motorbike stores were located was as rough as it
gets. While waiting for a new battery to be sourced, we had time to observe the
people around us and many of them seemed to favour the past-time of
glue-sniffing, quite openly as well. I saw junkie prostitutes being pulled
along by their pimps and a variety of other dodgy characters. Hence why we
didn't leave our bikes and stuff unattended for one second. We were in luck and
left with a new battery in my bike and the three of us left Pereira, quite
happy to see the back of this place.

We ventured onto a beautiful windy road, again through coffee country riding
east towards Honda. Well, we never made it that far. Because of the battery
stop in Pereira it had been quite a late start to the day and combined with the
very windy road, we didn't manage to get many kilometres under our belt and so
found ourselves riding in the dark. We therefore decided to stop in the town of
Fresno, another not so nice looking place, and found ourselves a cheap hotel.
It was while looking around for a hotel that my bike aka 'Christine' decided to
stop and not start again. This is just when a couple of dodgy looking
characters are walking towards me and there is me, stranded on a dark street
with a bike that doesn't want to start. Christine and I remained unharmed but I
had to walk her to a hotel not having a clue as to what the problem was as the
bike had been running fine all day after the battery change. The next morning
Mark had a fiddle around but could not find the problem. Adding to the
confusion was that at one point it did decide to start! Then trying once more:
nothing. Again another bump start was required and we were on our way again.
When we hit a traffic diversion later in the day (caused from a horrible
incident where a woman had been standing on the back of a moving truck and
fallen off and been decapitated) and rode over a bridge with the traffic
crawling, my bike once again stalled and there was I stuck on a bridge in 40
degree heat with hundreds of trucks behind me! This was starting to become
really frustrating and when I failed to bump start the bike rolling off the
bridge (the only "hill" for miles) Mark lost his sh*t and we had an
argument so stupid that resulted in us not speaking to each other for the rest
of the day! Oh the drama of it all :) Then Mark's clutch cable snapped later
on. Great day!

Our destination that day was the man-made dam of Guatape, 2 hours east of
Medellin. But again, a combination of bump-starting, windy roads and lots of
trucks meant that we only made it to El Penol which is just 12 km from Guatape
anyway, but we were all exhausted and it was late so we bunked down in a hotel
here for the night. The next morning Mark tried putting a new stator coil into
my bike and...voila! It fired up straight away! We rode to Guatape, climbed the
740 stairs to the giant rock that is El Penol and admired the view from the top
all over the dam which has created a stunning archipelago landscape for miles
and miles. Mark and I both agreed that we could see ourselves live here on a
little island in the dam.

Riding with Rahul was fun however at times a bit nerve wrecking! As he just
learnt to ride his bike a month or so ago in Ecuador he is still quite new to
riding and so still has a lot to learn about safe riding. Mark and I do our
best in teaching him not to overtake on blind corners etc and there have been
quite a few spills and close calls with other vehicles. However he is a very
willing learner and I think he will only improve with time. But he needs to get
himself a proper bike as the one he has now is not so great to put it
mildly.

We spent a relaxing few days in and around Guatape and nearby San Rafael where
we camped for very cheap. It poured down with rain every afternoon and night
which seems to be the pattern around these parts. After this we felt we had
recharged our batteries enough to hit the big city of Medellin.

Bienvenidos a Colombia!

Las Lajas Sanctuary

From afar

Llama dressed to impress

The landscape from Ipiales to Popayan was dry, sun-scorched and very hot!

Popayan

Lots of police presence

Odd street-art

Kids smoking pot right next to military and nobody seems to care...

The nice policeman who brought us breakfast

Mark playing up his alter-ego as a hairdresser, Rahul not seeming too relaxed about that

In front of Casa Blanca, Cali

Our trusty lunch-food-friend: Bandeja Paisa - it's very yummy!

Coffee and banana plants in the Zona Cafetera

Sweet little kid we met on a motorbike - he was riding up and down the road collecting wood

A friendly young boy we met when my bike battery died

The colourful houses of Salento

Valle de Cocora

Crazy dog we met in Salento - had an obsession with water

Didn't even know dogs bent that way

Riding with Rahul and his beast of a bike

Guatape

El Penol

And the crazy stairs climbing it

The pretty cobblestone streets of Guatape town

Odd hotel-sign featuring a slutty stewardess, a jumping fish and a helicopter carrying a truck...?

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

After the disappointment of Canoa we decided it would be
best to head back to the mountains and for the town of Banos which is
famous for its thermal baths and lush valleys topped off with its own active
volcano.

The ride there was going to be long, around 500kms which is
more than we usually like to ride in a day, but with not much in between we went for it.
The other reason was that if we arrived in Banos on a weekend all prices rise
in the hotels by 50%! So were going to make sure we had at least 2 nights
before the price rose. Soon as we left the coast the landscape changed
dramatically from a sunburnt, brown backdrop with the odd palms to lush green
hillsides and small winding roads. The road was littered with speed humps and
potholes but to take an eye off the road meant there would be the odd pothole
or two that you were sure to always hit. After the back roads through the hills
we came back out onto the main ‘highway’ east which was a much smoother
surface to ride on. Now we didn’t have to worry about potholes anymore, it was
just the stupid drivers instead. After negotiating our way through the first
sizeable city, we had problems again with Sanne’s sprocket coming loose. Luckily
I noticed it quickly, the main tell tale sign was engine oil over Sanne’s rear
wheel. Not the safest thing to happen. We were looking forward to getting
to Quito to get the bikes fixed but we were still awaiting parts, and now we
also needed new seals on the output shaft to stop this oil leak.

I tightened the nut that holds the sprocket on as tight as I
could and hoped that it would see us through to Quito, or at least Banos. Our
biggest problem was other road users this day. Their utter stupidity, ignorance
and lack of respect towards motorcyclists are outstanding. On one occasion as
we were headed down the road stuck behind a large vehicle a guy from way back
decides to overtake all vehicles in a procession in front of him as he was
headed towards a blind corner! No worries for him, I am sure he thought 'ah
there are only 2 motorcycles stuck behind the truck and I can force them off
the road as to not have an accident myself' and so he went about his business
not expecting me to hold my line and turn to verbally abuse him. In return I
got a mouthful of abuse and the middle finger for my troubles along with him
tailgating me until he could have another shot of getting around the ‘slower’
vehicles.

We were headed for more back roads to get away from the
madness on the main roads and this is where we started our steep ascent winding
back and forth up into the cloud forests and above. The surrounding landscape
was so beautiful with so many cacao plantations spotted along our route - that
was until we were high up into the mountains and everything became brown again.
Finally we popped out back onto another highway hoping to just cross it and
continue on through the back roads. Well our map was lying to us, there was a
road printed on our map but after asking around all the locals it has not been
built yet. Great, our so called short cut was not going to happen and now, and
was going to extend our trip by 50+ more kilometres. Not only this but we had
to keep climbing higher into the mountains and before we knew it back into the
clouds and freezing our arses off. Usually we are always prepared but this
particular day we left it too late to try and rug up, we stopped and added more
layers and put on our winter gloves, it never really worked and we found it
difficult to get warm so we just had to push on. As we got closer to Ambato the
sun was getting low and the traffic was picking up. There were not many signs
to Banos so we found ourselves stopping constantly to ask for directions which
slowed us down to the point we had no choice but to ride the last 40km’s in the
dark. It probably wouldn’t be so bad if our headlights weren’t so horrible.
They are fine if we are in the middle of nowhere with no traffic but we pushed
on finding ourselves squinting the rest of the way hoping for a safe arrival in
town.

We made it safely enough and were knackered after our long
eventful ride. The following day we headed straight for the thermal baths to
ease our aches and pains from the previous day's ride. We were not alone as
everybody else in town had the same idea. I couldn’t really say it was fully
relaxing as the pools were full of people and children screaming and so on, it
was nice at least to be in the beautiful surroundings with 2 water falls on
either side of the baths. It was also too hot to stay in for any length of time
so we thought we should check out the town and the many other things to do.

One of the activities is the bridge swing, somewhere between
50m to 100m above the fast flowing river
below is a rope hooked up to the bridge, then attached to some mental punter
who thinks it is a good idea to throw oneself over the edge superman style. I
am not usually bothered by heights and the like and thought at first when I saw photos
that I would be keen to give it a shot. Well that was short lived, soon as I
stepped onto the bridge I knew it was not for me. The operator tried to get us
to have a go, when we asked if he had ever tried it he answered with a NO, what
you think I am mad type of answer!

While in Banos we were really hoping to get a good view of
the volcano Tungurahua but the whole time we had nothing but cloud
surrounding the volcano. We decided we should push on since the weekend was
upon us along with the rising prices. We headed down the spectacular valley known
as the Via de las Cascadas (road of waterfalls) towards the Amazon basin and the town of Puyo where
many tourists head for treks into the Amazon. We came across the concrete
jungle known as Puyo and decided we should just keep going. So on the edge of
the Amazon we turned north for the town of Tena, known for its white
water rafting. The road twisted and turned all the while with the jungle
surrounding us, a great back drop to an uneventful ride through to Tena.

Our first observation of Tena was the huge amount of police
presence in town. Everywhere you looked on the street there
would always be at least 3 officers walking together down the street, we would
cross the road and then there would be the same amount or more again. They were
also very young which made us think there was some kind of police academy
there. After talking to the hostel owner he told us that it was to do with
drugs and that the police here don’t do anything and that they turn a blind eye
to most things, especially road/traffic violations, which of course we already were well aware.
There was not a whole lot to do in Tena, we decided not to head deep into the
jungle on a tour, for one it was expensive and we never like to go on ‘tours’
anyway but to always try and go the independent route. We spent our time
checking out the local protected forest in the middle of town and chilling out
by the river which ran right by our hostel room.

Our plan was to head for the Quilotoa loop and from there
to Quito. Again our map was lying to us and the road we had intended on taking
up a valley back into the mountains was non existent! We had heard that they
started making the road and only made it 20km’s before they decided to stop. We
never like to back track but we knew it was a scenic ride back to Banos so that
was where we headed. On the way back we stopped in Puyo to visit a monkey sanctuary there which was a nice experience. It was now Sunday, the prices were back to normal and we found
a great little place to stay after we managed to get around all the traffic
trying to get out of town. So happy we were not here for the weekend and the hoards
of domestic tourists who make their way here for just the weekend.

We were hoping to sneak a peek at the Volcano but it was
once again covered in clouds as is most of the sky in Ecuador, we did get to
see some smoke coming out quickly before the clouds rolled in once again. We
decided it was time to move on and check out some more of Ecuador including the
Quilotoa loop just south of Quito. It was not a long ride from Banos but the
weather turned for the worse for us not long after leaving, fortunately you
usually only need to travel another 30 minutes and the weather will change
again and it did. No rain but the higher we climbed the colder it became.

We were headed for a volcanic crater where there is a lake
inside. After passing by a large military group (no idea what they were doing
there) we took the very short walk to the rim of the crater. Sadly the sun was
not beaming down upon us and showing the beautiful colours of the water down
below but it was impressive all the same.

While we were taking pictures we noticed someone calling to
us, not having any idea who it was I turned my back and kind of ignored them,
it wasn’t until they were closer that we noticed it was some friends who we had
met back for the first time in Salta, Argentina. Mathias and Maria have been
travelling in their van all over South America and the last time we saw them
was when we had them over for dinner in Sucre, Bolivia. It was great to catch
up with them and to meet their travelling companions who are also Argentines.
We were invited to have lunch with them which was great. It was cold up at the
crater so after a great meal with good company we parted ways to find a hostel
for the night which we did in the village of Chugchilan.

After a cool night we had ourselves a short easy ride to our
next destination on the loop, Isinlivi. We had first heard about this place
after meeting a couple of Aussies on a motorcycle earlier this year who had
volunteered at this hostel. We liked the look of the place so we thought we
would check it out. It was a really chilled out place, expensive but nice. The
hosts, a Swiss couple made us feel very welcome and we hung out for the most of
the afternoon talking about our travels. As nice a place as it was we both agreed it was overpriced and we
probably would have went mad volunteering there for a long period of time, the
owners usually expect you to stay 2 months!

The time had come to move on but again we were taking only
small steps toward Quito as we had a place to stay with a fellow biker who runs
a hotel just south of Quito in the country side which is stunning farm land
mixed with parts of what used to be jungle. The hotel was once the family home
until Raul turned it into a hotel. Beautiful place that was quiet and Raul
cooked some great food. Just very lucky to have gotten the room for free!
We talked that hopefully we could take a ride together once we had our bikes
fixed and with that we were off to Quito and straight to Ecuador Freedom Bike
Rentals who we used to get our parts sent from the US. We made our way into
Quito easily and met up with Court and his partner Sylvain. Within minutes I was on the
back of a scooter and was taken to the post office to pick up just one of my
parcels as the other had yet to arrive. Court tried to stress us out telling us
over and over that UPS who had originally sent our parts were terrible and they
can take up to 3 months to deliver goods. We really hoped that this was not
going to happen.

We parted ways after meeting Diego their mechanic who was
going to help us out with our bikes to then meet up with Mateo, well his
brother anyway. We met Mateo back in Vilcabamba and he invited us to stay with him and his family in Quito. So we met up with Tomas his brother since Mateo
would be out of town for another day and we were shown to our room at their huge home in Guapulo. Well when I say room I actually mean a 3 bedroom apartment all to ourselves. We had landed on our feet again! It was not so close to the
centre or the old town but the taxis here are dirt cheap so that made life easy
to get around. The following day we received a message from Court telling me
that our other parts had arrived. Sweet! We met up with Diego again to organise
the work on the bikes including a new rear tyre for me now that my old tyre was completely bald.

This is where things started going down hill again. We were
meant to meet Diego at the workshop at 10am, Diego showed up 2 hours later with no
apology, he had been out in the hills riding his dirtbike... When inspecting the bikes there were a few other jobs that needed to
be done including machining 8 new valve guides, finding shims for the valves and
new gaskets. This was not going to happen over the weekend so we did what we
could and met up again on the Monday. On the Sunday we headed out to see some
of the city including the ride on the Teleferico up towards Volcano Pichincha which gives you an awesome view over the city. It was cold
and windy so we did not take the walk the rest of the way to the volcano, we
just took in the sights and marvelled at the 3 other volcanos that surround the
city. Next stop was the old town where there is a famous street, La Ronda. It
was nice walking around the old town but Quito was not really doing it for me. To top it off, I got pick-pocketed for the first time on this trip while on a crowded bus. They took the ipod which annoyed me not so much for the value, but more for all the music w had on there, photos and the map function on there that we would use in big cities. While in the old town we were looking for a place to spend a couple more nights as sadly
our apartment had been rented out. We spent the last night having dinner with Mateo
and his family which was great. We had not spent any time with many other
families for a while so it was a nice change.

After the weekend we were back at the mechanics to only be
told the machining of the new parts were going to take longer than expected.
Diego was quite blasé about the whole thing and we never quite knew where we
stood with him. There was another problem, this time my fault. When getting my
brother Callum to order the parts for me I made a mistake and ordered the wrong brand of rings for my piston and only 1 out of 3 fitted. Awesome, all this time spent to
get this fixed and I have the wrong parts. We left feeling a little deflated by
it all and tried again the next day. As the story goes we were delayed yet again,
while another company were looking after the machining of the valve guides they
snapped one while fitting it. Another day set back! Diego did little bits of
work here and there on the bikes while awaiting the top end but I was never
100% comfortable as to what the outcome on the bikes would be. He was not organised
and left everything to the last minute so the following day when we were meant
to get the bikes by early afternoon it became close to seven in the evening and
that was with my help putting the bikes back together. Diego also snapped a
bolt on the throttle cable when fitting it again to the carbie, again no apology
or that he could sort something out or pay for a new one, not that he could get
one in Quito anyway. There was also bolts missing when putting the bikes
together and he would look at me as if I should know where they are.

In the long run the bikes were put back together and started
fine. That was until the next day when leaving Quito after being there for a
week. I started my bike and a plume of grey smoke comes bellowing from my
exhaust. Great! After some time however the smoke stopped and we made our way
back to Diego. He was not around so I spoke with him on the phone about the problem, he
reassured me all was ok so we hit the road keeping an eye on the bikes
performance. Because of the hold up we never ended up getting to take that ride
with Raul sadly.

We were headed for Mindo, a small village in a valley
surrounded by lush green mountains, on the way we had a quick stop at Mitad del Mundo, the equator monument to take a
picture or two of crossing the equator. There was some small village set up for
tourists to take it all in, very cheesy in fact and we went and took the
obligatory photo before high tailing it out of there. Sadly the bikes did not
get in the shot. Twice we have now crossed the equator on opposite side of the
globe and no photos to prove it on the bikes.

We headed to Mindo on a roller coaster of a ride down into
Mindo, a sleepy village that attracts a few tourists with tourist prices
for accommodation. After searching around for a while we finally found a place
to call home for a few days. We spent our time strolling around town and the
rivers and topping it off with some more zip lining. It was fun to head up into
the cloud forest and check out the surrounding countryside with a view from a
cable as we sped across it. As good as it was it was nowhere as good as the one
we did back in Bolivia. After a couple of days chilling and trying to forget
about the previous problems with the bikes it was time to move on and we had
just one more night in Ecuador and that was in the market town of Otavalo. The
ride there was a perfect way to end our ride in Ecuador, nothing beats riding
dirt back roads with stunning nature all around you. Our last night was spent
camping on the outskirts of town where we enjoyed having the place to
ourselves.

All in all Ecuador was another great country to travel
through, even better if there were no other cars on the road. Having a little
bit of everything in such a small country the people of Ecuador should feel
very lucky for the beautiful country that they live in.

Where's Wally?

Can't you just see how impressed I was?

At least there was a lovely waterfall to look at while having a dip

The main river running past Banos

We came across some youngsters doing some dance show at half time of kids football in Tena

The tranquil view from our hotel room, Tena

Where 2 rivers meet

This guy enjoyed baring his teeth to us, at the monkey sanctuary Puyo

While this little fella probably would have preferred to be on the outside of his cage

Laguna Quilotoa

Sanne with Mathias and Maria

Having a tasty lunch with the Argentines

Chillin at llullu llama hostel in Isinlivi

Room with a view, this particular room is the toilet!

This 'friendly' cat thought I was its mother!

With Raul at his hotel, Sierra Alisos

Street art, Quito

The babies getting some much needed attention

Sanne thought this was pretty!

Volcano Cotopaxi in the distance overlooking Quito, we are standing on Volcano Pichincha

My Something About Mary moment?

La Ronda, old town Quito

Iglesia Guapulo

Mateo next to Sanne and his welcoming family

Tomas giving me a little gift of vegemite that was given to him by his girlfriend, needless to say the whole family hates it

Basilica del Voto Nacional

I like to get the most out of my tyres

The view from our room in the Old Town, looking at La Virgen de Quito

Same again but in the daylight

That's me looking totally excited at the Equator

While Sanne was ecstatic about being there

Obviously the excitement was too much to handle for Sanne

This cat was loving Sanne's bike to the point it still would not get off when we tried to leave one day for a ride

Zip lining fun, not sure what I was trying to do there

In a slightly compromising position, 'superman style'

A few shots from Sanne after visiting the local butterfly farm

We loved the scenery throughout Ecuador

We stopped at this waterfall for a quiet break for lunch

Didn't know what to expect when taking a detour around road works, It wasn't this that's for sure

Google Website Translator Gadget

About Me

Welcome to Handful Of Throttle!
We are Mark & Sanne - an Australian/Danish couple who for 4 years from 2011-2015 travelled around the world on our Suzuki DRZ 400 motorbikes. We started the trip in March 2011 in Perth, Australia, rode overland through Asia to Europe, shipped our bikes to Argentina and rode all over South America for over a year. We then rode the final leg of the trip through the Southern states of the US from Florida to California. This is our blog.
If you would like to contact us, feel free to email us on:
sannedynamite@gmail.com
or
manicmark8@gmail.com